Certain demographics of people are at a higher risk for traffic accidents, which is the premise behind why auto insurance companies charge different people different rates. The Texas Department of Transportation recently released findings regarding this phenomenon for 2012 (the most recent year for which complete data exists). The following is a breakdown of the relative risk of car crashes by age, gender, and date.
AGE
The information below lists all of the crashes for 2012 by the age of the driver. It is important to note that these figures reference the driver’s age and not the age of passengers or others involved. An interesting finding is that the age group 16-21, traditionally thought to be among the most dangerous, had fewer crashes —by sheer numbers at least—than those between 22-30 and 31-40.
Total Crashes
15 and Under – 1,744 = 0.23%
16-21 – 117,504 = 15.56%
22-30 – 169,870 = 22.49%
31-40 – 139,158 = 18.42%
41-50 – 116,063 = 15.37%
51-60 – 88,592 = 11.73%
61-70 – 46,892 = 6.21%
71-80 – 19,723 = 2.61%
81-90 – 7,071 = 0.94%
91 and Up – 1,021 = 0.14%
Unknown – 47,633 = 6.31%
The next section of data examines the age of drivers who were involved in a fatal crash. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the age group with the most deaths was for drivers 22-30, those who most recently reached the legal drinking age. Tragically, this group represented almost a quarter of all 2012 Texas drivers’ fatalities.
Severity of Crashes – Fatal
15 and Under – 12 = 0.26%
16-21 – 589 = 12.90%
22-30 – 1,042 = 22.82%
31-40 – 835 = 18.29%
41-50 – 762 = 16.69%
51-60 – 657 = 14.39%
61-70 – 334 = 7.31%
71-80 – 158 = 3.46%
81-90 – 63 = 1.38%
91 and Up – 11 = 0.24%
Unknown – 103 = 2.26%
The following data is for the age of Texas drivers who were seriously, but not fatally, injured in an automobile crash in 2012. Once again the figures were highest for drivers between 22-30. Meanwhile, injuries steadily tapered off for drivers after this high risk age group; however, some of that decline may be related to fewer older drivers being on the road altogether.
Severity of Crashes – Serious Injury
15 and Under – 323 = 0.29%
16-21 – 17,436 = 15.56%
22-30 – 26,145 = 23.33%
31-40 – 21,296 = 19.00%
41-50 – 17,773 = 15.86%
51-60 – 13,807 = 12.92%
61-70 – 7,173 = 6.40%
71-80 – 3,055 = 2.73%
81-90 – 1,155 = 1.03%
91 and Up – 144 = 0.13%
Unknown – 3,770 = 2.75%
The next set of age group statistics documents the number and percentage of Texas drivers in 2012 who sustained a non-serious injury as a result of a car crash.
Severity of Crashes – Non-Serious Injury
15 and Under – 355 = 0.21%
16-21 – 25,200 = 14.56%
22-30 – 39,610 = 22.88%
31-40 – 33,565 = 19.39%
41-50 – 28,146 = 16.26%
51-60 – 21,440 = 12.38%
61-70 – 11,277 = 6.51%
71-80 – 4,631 = 2.68%
81-90 – 1,600 = 0.92%
91 and Up – 170 = 0.10%
Unknown – 7,120 = 4.11%
The final section based on age identifies the number of Texas drivers in each age group who were involved in automobile crashes that did not sustain an injury as a result of the crash. It is an encouraging sign that this classification represented the majority of all crashes, and that for 2012 most Texas drivers involved in crashes were not harmed as a result.
Severity of Crashes – Non-Injury
15 and Under – 1,054 = 0.23%
16-21 – 74,279 = 15.96%
22-30 – 103,073 = 22.14%
31-40 – 83,462 = 17.93%
41-50 – 69,382 = 14.90%
51-60 – 52,688 = 11.32%
61-70 – 28,108 = 6.04%
71-80 – 11,879 = 2.55%
81-90 – 4,253 = 0.91%
91 and Up – 696 = 0.15%
Unknown – 36,640 = 7.87%
GENDER
According to the statistics, male drivers in Texas were almost three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than female drivers in 2012.
Percent of Fatalities by Gender
Males – 72.92%
Females – 27.08%
DATE & TIME
The next section examines the number of fatalities by month, and the percent of fatalities that each month represents. It is striking that the numbers are relatively consistent across each month, with February, the shortest month, having the fewest.
Fatalities By Month
January: 220 – 7.29%
February: 210 – 6.96%
March: 256 – 8.48%
April: 246 – 8.15%
May: 260 – 8.61%
June: 260 – 8.61%
July: 254 – 8.42%
August: 271 – 8.98%
September: 258 – 8.55%
October: 262 – 8.68%
November: 268 – 8.88%
December: 253 – 8.38%
On that same note, the numbers of non-fatal injuries from crashes are evenly distributed across the months; however, it is notable that December had the most non-fatal crashes and is the only month to top 9%.
Non-Fatalities By Month
January: 31,276 – 7.58%
February: 32,668 – 7.89%
March: 36,870 – 8.91%
April: 34,172 – 8.26%
May: 35,403 – 8.55%
June: 33,178 – 8.02%
July: 32,226 – 7.79%
August: 34,401 – 8.31%
September: 34,756 – 8.40%
October: 36,280 – 8.77%
November: 35,390 – 8.55%
December: 37,232 – 9.00%
Below is the data for the number of fatal car crashes which occurred by day of week. As expected, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—the weekend days—experienced the most fatal car crashes. Meanwhile, Tuesday had the fewest.
Fatalities By Day of Week
Sunday: 530 – 17.56%
Monday: 363 – 12.03%
Tuesday: 346 – 11.46%
Wednesday: 386 – 12.79%
Thursday: 375 – 12.43%
Friday: 460 – 15.24%
Saturday: 558 – 18.49%
The next section looks at non-fatal crashes by day of week. Surprisingly Sunday, which had the second most fatal crashes, had the fewest non-fatal crashes. Unfortunately, this means that, while accidents on Sunday were down overall, accidents occurring on Sunday were more likely fatal.
Non-Fatalities By Day of Week
Sunday: 48,490 – 11.72%
Monday: 58,077 – 14.03%
Tuesday: 58,114 – 14.04%
Wednesday: 58,597 – 14.16%
Thursday: 60,168 – 14.54%
Friday: 71,716 – 17.33%
Saturday: 58,690 – 14.18%
In the next section we examine the number and percentage of fatalities by hour of the day. The most fatalities occurred between the hours of 2:00am and 3:00am. This can likely be attributed to sleepy drivers, drunk drivers, or both.
Fatalities By Hour
12:00am – 12:59am: 147 – 4.87%
1:00am – 1:59am: 132 – 4.37%
2:00am – 2:59am: 196 – 6.49%
3:00am – 3:59am: 117 – 3.88%
4:00am – 4:59am: 91 – 3.02%
5:00am – 5:59am : 91 – 3.02%
6:00am – 6:59am: 145 – 4.80%
7:00am – 7:59am: 118 – 3.91%
8:00am – 8:59am: 94 – 3.11%
9:00am – 9:59am: 84 – 2.78%
10:00am – 10:59am: 95 – 3.15%
11:00am – 11:59am: 80 – 2.65%
12:00pm – 12:59pm: 93 – 3.08%
1:00pm – 1:59pm: 110 – 3.64%
2:00pm – 2:59pm: 126 – 4.17%
3:00pm – 3:59pm: 129 – 4.27%
4:00pm – 4:59pm: 127 – 4.21%
5:00pm – 5:59pm: 141 – 4.67%
6:00pm – 6:59pm: 157 – 5.20%
7:00pm – 7:59pm: 146 – 4.84%
8:00pm – 8:59pm: 151 – 5.00%
9:00pm – 9:59pm: 145 – 4.80%
10:00pm – 10:59pm: 146 – 4.84%
11:00pm – 11:59pm: 157 – 5.20%
The final section looks at 2012’s non-fatal car crashes by hour of the day. The most accidents occurred between 5:00pm and 6:00pm, in the heart of rush hour. The hour right before, 4:00pm to 5:00pm, had the second highest rate, indicating that even leaving work early was not necessarily enough to prevent commuters from having non-serious crashes.
Non-Fatalities By Hour
12:00am – 12:59am: 8,218 – 1.99%
1:00am – 1:59am: 7,824 – 1.89%
2:00am – 2:59am: 10,746 – 2.60%
3:00am – 3:59am: 6,638 – 1.60%
4:00am – 4:59am: 5,032 – 1.22%
5:00am – 5:59am: 6,354 – 1.54%
6:00am – 6:59am: 11,769 – 2.84%
7:00am – 7:59am: 21,757 – 5.26%
8:00am – 8:59am: 20,007 – 4.83%
9:00am – 9:59am: 15,207 – 3.67%
10:00am – 10:59am: 16,138 – 3.90%
11:00am – 11:59am: 19,378 – 4.68%
12:00pm – 12:59pm: 24,030 – 5.81%
1:00pm – 1:59pm: 23,499 – 5.68%
2:00pm – 2:59pm: 24,814 – 6.00%
3:00pm – 3:59pm: 28,844 – 6.97%
4:00pm – 4:59pm: 31,928 – 7.71%
5:00pm – 5:59pm: 34,172 – 8.26%
6:00pm – 6:59pm: 28,087 – 6.79%
7:00pm – 7:59pm: 19,002 – 4.59%
8:00pm – 8:59pm: 14,810 – 3.58%
9:00pm – 9:59pm: 13,875 – 3.35%
10:00pm – 10:59pm: 11,919 – 2.88%
11:00pm – 11:59pm: 9,840 – 2.38%
These demographics indicate that statistically, for Texas drivers in 2012, males between the ages of 22-30 who were driving between the hours of 2am and 3am on a Saturday were at the highest risk of being involved in a fatal car crash. All drivers, regardless of age, gender, time of day, or day of week, however, should exercise as much caution as possible when behind the wheel.